The chief executive of Aberdeen Council, Angela Scott, said: "There were children that were interviewed as part of this process, Bailey’s family as well. We need to be respectful of how difficult the situation is for all the families and all the children.

“We will work as speedily as we can to secure those permissions and as soon as we have those permissions we will put the report in the public domain.”

The other recommendations in the report focus on bullying, business continuity planning and the media. There are also three general recommendations.

Bullying

13. Aberdeen City Council's 2009 anti-bullying policy should be replaced with a policy to include the changes following the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

14. School anti-bullying policies should be written in terms of the new policy.

15. A senior teacher must be trained to respond to complaints of bullying and agree outcomes with parents.

Business continuity planning

16. The rigour of the "business continuity plans for secondary schools" should be tested using a live scenario based on the fatal incident.

Media

17. Regulatory bodies Ofcom and Ipso should consider the imposition of a 24-hour bar on reporting of names involved in a fatal incident to allow for the "proper and respectful" notification to relatives and those intimately affected by the event.

18. Aberdeen City Council should develop media training for members and chief officers on the management of communications during adverse events.

General

19. Aberdeen City Council should review the complaints policy to ensure it is responsive and expeditious.

20. A review commissioned from the Good Governance Institute by Aberdeen City Council should defer its conclusion until the Scottish Government Child Protection System Review has reported. Expected by the end of December.

21. Aberdeen City chief officers group to develop an implementation plan to deliver these recommendations and keep progress under review. ends  

On the possession of weapons, the review set out 12 proposals.

1. All parents should receive a letter from school at the beginning of S1, setting out the school rules and the expectations regarding weapons.

2. Pupil forums and pupil councils should be encouraged to develop safe processes to enable pupils to share their knowledge of weapons with teachers.

3. Police Scotland shall be notified of every incident of weapons possession known to a school.

4. Every incident will be recorded by the school immediately following an allegation or an incident and notified to senior managers.

5. Aberdeen City Council should work with Police Scotland to establish a "clear and effective" policy on management of offensive weapons in school.

6. Under current law, any searches must be made with a pupil's consent. Where no consent is given, the police should be notified if there are grounds to suggest a young person is carrying a weapon.

7. A search and confiscation protocol should be developed by Aberdeen City Council as part of their weapons/knife crime strategy.

8. Individual risk assessments should be completed on all individuals known or suspected to carry offensive weapons.

9. Aberdeen City Council must work with police to develop and deliver training for P7, S1 and S5 pupils to support the knife crime strategy.

10. Aberdeen City Council should work with the Ben Kinsella Trust to develop teaching resources and lesson plans.

11. The Scottish government "should improve the resilience of schools to the threat posed by weapons and give consideration to amending the law in relation to searching pupils".

12. The Scottish government "should explore the further legislative controls that can be brought to bear on the purchase of weapons online".

Andrew Lowe's review recommends the Scottish government "should improve the resilience of schools to the threat posed by weapons and give consideration to amending the law in relation to searching pupils".

The trial of the boy convicted of Killing Bailey Gwynne also heard the knife used in the stabbing had been bought online, without the killer having to prove his age.

"The Scottish government should explore the further legislative controls that can be brought to bear on the purchase of weapons online," the review states.

It recommends that Aberdeen City Council works with Police Scotland to draw up a "clear and effective" policy on the management of offensive weapons in schools, and that pupil forums and councils develop "safe" ways to allow young people to share any knowledge of weapons with teachers.

Andrew Lowe said the pair had met in year one but had never been friends or enemies.

He said it was testament to the fact that carrying weapons could have tragic consequences in conflicts where there had not been any "prior intention"

“I’m pretty confident that this young man didn’t go to school imagining that he was going to take away the life of a fellow pupil who wasn’t incidentally even his enemy," he said.

“This was just one of those dreadful things that can occur if one carries weapons.”

Andrew Lowe said it was "difficult" for teachers to get consent to search a pupil, in accordance with current law, and that consent was "not always forthcoming".

“There is a duty of care to the other pupils in the class, there is an expectation that you can keep everybody safe, there’s an expectation they can deal with many things, and frankly the law doesn’t support that," he said.

Asked whether he would like to see a change in the law to allow teachers to search pupils without consent, he answered: "I would like to see a scenario where senior school staff were so empowered, yes."

Chief Supt Campbell Thomson told the press conference that in each case the school involved had informed officers of the possession of a knife by a pupil. Each incident was "robustly investigated", he said.

Colin Blane
BBC Scotland correspondent

 A stabbing which led to the death of a pupil in an Aberdeen school was "potentially predictable and avoidable", according to an official report.

Bailey Gwynne was stabbed to death at Cults Academy 12 months ago during a fight about a biscuit.

The report says that some pupils knew his attacker was carrying a knife but didn't report it to staff.

Bailey, who was 16, died from a single stab wound to the heart during a fight in the lunch hour at Cults Academy in Aberdeen.

His killer - another 16-year-old who cannot be identified for legal reasons - was locked up for nine years in April after a jury found him guilty of culpable homicide.

The review said some pupils knew that Bailey's attacker was carrying a knife but because that information was not passed on to teachers, the events which led to Bailey Gwynne's death could not have been predicted or averted.

Report author Andrew Lowe was asked why it appeared that some pupils at Cults Academy felt they could not report that Bailey Gwynne's killer had taken weapons.

Mr Lowe answered: "I don’t know whether they didn’t feel able or whether they didn’t feel it necessary.

"This wasn’t a boy who they perceived to be violent or conducting in risky behaviour – he was quite a quiet boy and his motivation for carrying weapons I think was understood by some of these boys as just a form of bravado."

Michael Matheson said the government would look at the conclusions of the review and report back in due course.

Mr Lowe told press conference : "I was greatly moved by the additional trauma visited upon the parents by having to leave their recently departed son to ensure that close family learned from them and not from media sources."

His report recommends that Ofcom and IPSO consider the imposition of a "24-hour bar on reporting and publication of names involved in a fatal incident" so relatives can be notified.

Image source, bb

In accordance with current legislation in Scotland, a head teacher can only search pupils where consent is given.

When consent is refused by the pupil Mr Lowe said police should be notified if the school suspects the child is carrying a weapon.

But he also added: "The Scottish government should improve the resilience of schools to the threat posed by weapons and give consideration to amending the law in relation to searching pupils."

Concerns about the 16-year-old who stabbed Bailey, known as Child A in the report, were voiced nine years ago when he threw rocks at another child.

But the review said the boy had been a "secondary player" in the events and was not mentioned significantly in correspondence following the incident.

Image source, PA

The report said: "It did not reveal a violent child but a child under very significant and continual pressure from his brother A1."

However, it concluded the complaint after the events "did did not receive a satisfactory outcome".